Ottoman Empire

Lansing Collins describes how, in honour of a previous gift sent in the other direction, Elizabeth I presented Sultan Mohammed III with an elaborate clock, surmounted by singing birds that shook their wings.

Anthony Bryer takes a visit to Nicaea; The seat of early Church Councils and, for a while, of the Byzantine Emperors, it has a history stretching from the reign of Alexander the Great to the present day.

Sarah Searight describes how the Levant Company, which had received its first charter from Elizabeth I, did not surrender its monopolistic hold over trade with the Middle East until the reign of George IV.

Fresh from his defeat by the Russians, Charles XII, the King of Sweden, and a body of faithful adherents took refuge in the Turkish Empire. Dennis J. McCarthy describes how he he remained there for five years, an increasingly unwelcome guest.